The customisation of Connect to meet individual fee-earners’ requirements greatly assisted buy-in for the new system, which together with the significant strides towards a paperless office and a highly streamlined operation contributed to Toller Beattie picking up the Federation of Small Businesses’ awards for best use of IT and overall Devon county winner last month.

SOS Connect replaced the firm’s mainly manual case management last year and was chosen to give Toller Beattie a level of control and flexibility to customise workflows and case management as well as provide scope for expansion. Following a successful phase one trial for residential conveyancing and commercial, the system now additionally handles personal injury, litigation, family, employment, planning and criminal caseloads. As a long-term user of SOS for accounting, Toller Beattie now has a fully integrated case and practice management solution.

Partner Mark Roome said he was pleased with the progress that has been made: “The goal, which has been achieved, was to be in a position where fee-earners can state how they want to use the system and we can respond using the workflow and scripting tools in SOS to meet their exact needs. We are very happy with the results and now see the potential for bigger and better things in the future.”

The system has also allowed fee-earners to work remotely. All documents are tagged and scanned. Everything, including e-mail correspondence is tied to a case and is instantly accessible, which permits fee-earners to work as normal from any location. “The natural follow-on is to open up our systems and extend similar transparency to clients,” said Mr Roome.

Innovation was a critical component of success in the recent awards and mentioned as a tangible benefit. Mr Roome said: “The way that staff have embraced and utilised IT, our streamlined operations, paper reduction, online client services and overall business innovation were achieved in large part due to SOS Connect and have helped us deliver a truly competitively differentiated service.”

David McNamara, managing director of SOS said: “The need to innovate is paramount if firms are to survive and prosper in the post Legal Services Act landscape and Toller Beattie is an excellent example of how SOS Connect can be a catalyst for modernisation and improving business services both internally and externally.”

Legal Futures Blog

Written in honour of Malcolm Young, recently deceased founding member of AC/DC, there are nine references to AC/DC songs throughout this article. We will send a £20 iTunes voucher to the first person who gets in touch to tell us what they are. The forces that are driving change in the legal profession are wide and varied. The ability of law firms and individual solicitors to respond positively and innovatively to these challenges will determine who survives and prospers. Competition for new business is fierce, a dog eat dog world, one might say. Which brings us to AC/CD. Not my favourite rock band, but an acronym for Attract, Convert, Close and Delight – the four pillars of inbound marketing.